The film is based on Richard Osman’s 2020 novel of the same name, but not everything has made it into the adaptation.
The Thursday Murder Club, which now has a full trailer, airs on Netflix on August 28 and fans of Richard Osman’s novel are desperate to see how it has been adapted for the small screen.
Boasting a star-studded cast, the movie follows four retirees who spend their time solving cold case murders for fun, but they end up with a real whodunit on their hands.
The film stars Helen Mirren as Elizabeth, Pierce Brosnan as Ron, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim and Celia Imrie as Joyce, and it was directed by Chris Columbus.
Chris said of the film: “There’s a wonderful mystery at its core, so fans of detective and thriller films will not be disappointed.
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“Thematically, I found it interesting that at the heart of the novel, there are four elderly people, living in a retirement community, who are obsessed with death and murder.
“They are in the last act of their lives, facing their own mortality, yet they are somehow obsessed with studying cold cases that deal with violent murders. I fell in love with that concept. It’s darkly comedic and deeply emotional.”
Translating the complex 350 page novel, which is full of plot twists, into a screenplay was actor and comedian Katy Brand’s responsibility.
“I remember thinking ‘there’s so much to play with here – it’s such an explosion of ideas.’ My immediate sense regarding adapting the book was that I wanted to draw out the emotion and Chris Columbus seemed to respond to that when we first met,” she said.
Chris opened up about how he initially became involved in the project, admitting the first scripts were not to his liking.
He said: “I was a fan of the books, but the initial scripts I read veered far from the novel. I felt that this was a mistake and I wanted to preserve what everyone loved about the book.
“When I first met with the writer, Katy Brand, I was convinced that she not only understood what made the novel so incredibly popular with readers around the world.
“But she also had the vision to write a film that was faithful to the source material. Katy’s draft was wonderful.
“And it was because of that draft that we were able to get so many British acting legends to commit to our film.”
The film also stars Naomi Ackie as PC Donna De Freitas, Daniel Mays as DCI Chris Hudson, Tom Ellis as Jason Ritchie, Jonathan Pryce as Stephen Best and David Tennant as Ian Ventham.
The Thursday Murder Club airs on Netflix on August 28